Rise in hiring as economy starts growing April 9, 2012 JOB vacancies in the UK rose at their fastest rate since November 2008 last month, led by a boom in IT hiring, according to data out today from an online recruiter. Opportunities rose eight per cent over the year to March, the Monster Employment Index showed, with IT vacancies up 25 per cent to their [...]
House prices struggle despite duty incentive April 9, 2012 HOUSE prices fell again in March, despite higher buying activity ahead of the expiry of the stamp duty holiday, industry figures showed today. Ten per cent more surveyors reported prices falling than rising in the three months to March, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) survey. The fall represents a slowdown from [...]
AT&T sells off Yellow Pages April 9, 2012 AT&T said on yesterday that it would sell a 53 per cent stake in its declining Yellow Pages business to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in a deal worth $950m including debt. Under the terms of the deal, AT&T will receive $750m in cash, subject to adjustment, and Cerberus will take on $200m in [...]
Boeing inks Dreamliner deal April 9, 2012 PLANEMAKER Boeing said yesterday it has finalised a deal with Russia’s Transaero Airlines for four 787-8 Dreamliners, worth $744m (£468m) at list prices. Boeing’s Dreamliner is a lightweight carbon-composite aircraft that was three years late to market but is popular with customers. The plane-maker, which competes for orders with EADS unit Airbus, has about 850 [...]
Excuses and fear could keep markets down April 9, 2012 HOW many times since October have you heard the words, “I think the equity market has run up too fast and I’m waiting for a correction before I commit money”? The answer is lots, of course. Second question: how many of these people will be committing money to the market now we’ve seen a bit [...]
Splunk expects $10 IPO pricing April 9, 2012 SPLUNK, which makes software that collects and indexes data, said it expects its initial public offering of 13.5m shares to be priced between $8 and $10 apiece. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it plans to sell about 12.5m shares, with its selling stockholders offering the rest. At [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 9, 2012 Oriel Securities The UK corporate and institutional stockbroker and advisory firm has announced the appointment of David Knox as head of equities. Knox joins in June from JP Morgan Cazenove, where he served as head of equity research and a member of the executive committee. GW Pharmaceuticals The AIM-listed pharmaceutical company has announced that David [...]
BEST of the BROKERS April 9, 2012 ASHMORE House broker UBS has upgraded the emerging markets fund manager from “neutral” to “buy” and upped its target price from 400p to 420p following recent share price underperformance and record inflows. The broker sees significant structural opportunities for growth in emerging market assets. BTG Deutsche Bank rates the specialist healthcare company as a “buy” [...]
Interest rates frozen April 5, 2012 The Bank of England has continued to keep UK interest rates at 0.5 per cent and announced no change to its quantitative easing(QE) programme. Rates have been at 0.5 per cent since March 2009.
New car sales up 1.8 per cent in March April 5, 2012 New car sales rose 1.8 percent on the year in the key month of March to 372,835 vehicles, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said on Thursday. March is typically the busiest month for registrations, accounting for 18 percent of the full year’s volume on average. “The important March new car market performed above [...]